D002-CHINA MEDIA MARATON ROBOTS

Honor's humanoid robot "Lightning" was crowned champion of the 2026 Beijing E‑Town Humanoid Robot Half‑Marathon on Sunday, finishing with a net time of 50 minutes and 26 seconds.

The race kicked off at 7:30 in Beijing's Yizhuang District, also known as E-Town. It covers a total distance of 21.0975 kilometers, featuring two main categories of autonomous navigation and remote control. Robots from both categories competed on the same course, with results calculated using weighted coefficients of 1.0 and 1.2, respectively.

The robots independently developed by Honor, China's leading smart device provider, dominated the podium, sweeping the top three places.

Honor's Qitian Dasheng team took the first place, its Leiting Shandian team finished second in 50 minutes and 56 seconds, and the Xinghuo Liaoyuan team claimed third with 53 minutes and one second.

All three podium finishers were competing under the autonomous navigation category.

A remotely controlled version from Honor's Jueying Chitu team crossed the finish line first in 48 minutes and 19 seconds. It was also the first robot to set off. But based on the event's weighted scoring rules, its net finish time was about 57 minutes.

This year, the number of participating teams surged from 20 last year to over 100, with significantly improved overall performance. Humanoid robots demonstrated greater endurance, smoother gaits and more stable algorithms.

Last year, the winner was the "Tiangong Ultra" humanoid robot developed by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center with a finish time of about two hours and 40 minutes.